Argentina is one of the few countries where imprisoned and sentenced women have a right to keep their children in prison.

The law gives them this right until the baby is two years old, after which the mother looses her parental rights and the judge decides on the child`s fate.

Sometimes when mother`s sentence is not too long, she can keep the child until the end of the sentence. Still, when it comes to a longer sentence and the child has no relatives to take care of it, it ends up in an orphanage or is temporarily adopted by a foster family.

Tender criminals?

- During a whole year I visited the Los Hornos prison regularly every week to take pictures of women in prison with their children. I soon learnt that my ideas of this situation were far too romantic. The children who share the jail with their mother, even though they might be very important for her, play a secondary and silent role. It is difficult at first to know who is who's son. Some are loved and cared for, others are ill treated. They are the only possessions women in jail can have: children for two years – said Argentine photographer Adriana Lestido, who often spent time in the women`s prison.

Argentinean women`s prison in Los Hornos, near La Plata, is a medium-security prison holding 273 female inmates. Some of them are pregnant and their everyday lives are enriched with 63 children. These mothers ended up in prison mostly for robberies, drug trafficking or murder.

The inmates are mostly satisfied with their accommodation, but they complain about long delays before trial. One of the larger incidents in Los Hornos happened in 2005 when an inmate started a protest by setting mattresses on fire.

She was angered by an order for a transfer. One inmate died and two were injured.

Ask a man what his greatest concern is and he will say its getting out of prison. If you ask a woman the same, she won`t say freedom or anything else. Her greatest concerns are children, said Susie, an inmate.

When mum is in prison

In the past two decades, female crime has gone up and it lead to a real explosion of female prisoners, resulting in a lack of women`s prisons around the world.

Research shows that 75 percent of women who end up in prison have at least one child. These are mostly young, single, ill-educated women often deeply involved with alcohol and drugs.

Most women in prison claim the worst part of their sentence is being apart from their child. Pregnant inmates often give birth in hand-cuffs and the child is separated from the mother straight after birth.

Women stay behind bars with incurable emotional scars and children are sent to an orphanage or to a foster home.

Psychologists say that three things differentiate children whose mothers are in prison from others: insufficient care – often due to poverty, lack of family support and traumas.

Researches show that children of female prisoners are more likely to wet their beds, refuse food and realise exceptionally poor academic success.

They often maintain their low social status later on in life, while society stigmatises them, leading to a permanent sense of shame.

Behind bars – kindergarten

Mexico City authorities have passed a law in 1990 which allows children born in prison to stay with their mothers until the age of 6.

Thus, concrete walls of the Santa Martha Acatitla prison have a room with colourful walls, which has the role of a prison kindergarten. This is where mothers in blue prison uniforms, often covered in tattoos, spend their days playing with their children. Apart from drawing kits and many toys, prison children have a little sports hall.

Although a prison can seem like an inappropriate place for children of the youngest age, yonder authorities are convinced children are better off spending their first years with the warmth of their mother, rather than being given up for adoption or to an orphanage.

“Prison babies” can visit their fathers or relatives during weekends and holidays.

That is not true, this is not Argentina, in our country the womans can't have her childrens inside the prison. In addition, if you read all the words apperars in the pics, all are in english, not spanish... Please, correct the tittle of post. Thanks.No es verdad, eso no es argentina, a las mujeres de nuestro pais, no se les permite tener a sus hijos en la prision. Ademas todas las palabras que aparecen en las imagenes, están todas en ingles, no en español... Por favor, corrijan el título del post. Muchas gracias.